Major industrial park on outskirts of Peterborough rejected by planning committee

Plans for a major new business park in Stanground have been rejected by Peterborough City Council (PCC).

If approved, the development would have been built at Horsey Bridge on Whittlesey Road in the residential neighbourhood and comprised around 20 buildings.

But the council’s planning committee agreed it would harm the character of the local area and contravene Peterborough’s Local Plan (LP).

This is essentially a document that lays out the planning policies of a particular region including acceptable spots for new developments.

But it’s a serious undertaking, requiring public consultation, councillors’ sign-off and Government approval – all of which can take years to complete.

“If we agree to this, we effectively throw our Local Plan in the bin,” planning committee chair Cllr Chris Harper (Independent) said, adding that it would set a “precedent” for the future.

The argument in favour of sidestepping the LP made by its supporters is that the land designated for business development in the document, which was adopted in 2019, has almost been exhausted and more is clearly needed.

In fact a review of the LP will begin next month with identifying new development sites at the top of the agenda.

“We’re saying the Local Plan’s not good enough and we definitely need a new one, then at the same time we’re saying we don’t want to go against the Local Plan,” Cllr Ishfaq Hussain (Conservatives), a supporter, said.

“Having come from a small business background myself, I can see there is a real demand for SME (small and medium enterprise) units in and around Peterborough. I myself get asked all the time by people looking for them if there’s any available.”

But there were hundreds of public objections and issues raised at the meeting from the possible increase in traffic on the A605 near where the development would be built to it being planned on greenbelt land.

The development would also erase the boundary between Peterborough and the Fens, critics argued, as it would engulf King’s Delph as well as dominating the landscape near Horsey Hill – a Civil War-era fort.

Particular concern was raised, too, over the area’s archaeology which includes a Mid-Bronze Age ditch and wooden posts dating to the Late Bronze Age and Late Iron Age.

“Archaeologically, this is an extremely important area,” Cllr Harper said. “This is Peterborough’s history. Do we concrete over it, effectively?”

Developers Barnack Estates UK Ltd addressed some of these concerns in their plans, spending more than £100,000 to investigate the area’s archaeology and planning to spend half a million more on preserving it.

They would also have implemented height restrictions on their buildings and ensured a new priority junction on the A605 would allow cars to easily access the site.

But this ultimately wasn’t enough to convince the majority of PCC’s planning committee which made the relatively unusual decision to turn the development down.

If a plan has reached the committee it has already won the approval of council officers, meaning most are approved.

Six councillors voted in favour of going against the officers' recommendation and rejected the plans, while two voted against and one abstained.